NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "GRIPPING...THIS YARN HAS IT ALL."
--USA TODAY * "A WONDERFUL BOOK." --The Christian Science Monitor
* "ENTHRALLING." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * "A MUST-READ."
--Booklist (starred review)
A human drama unlike any other--the riveting and definitive full story
of the worst sea disaster in United States naval history.
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis is sailing
alone in the Philippine Sea when she is sunk by two Japanese torpedoes.
For the next five nights and four days, almost three hundred miles from
the nearest land, nearly nine hundred men battle injuries, sharks,
dehydration, insanity, and eventually each other. Only 316 will survive.
For the first time Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story
of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own
in "a wonderful book...that features grievous mistakes, extraordinary
courage, unimaginable horror, and a cover-up...as complete an account of
this tragic tale as we are likely to have" (The Christian Science
Monitor). It begins in 1932, when Indianapolis is christened and
continues through World War II, when the ship embarks on her final
world-changing mission: delivering the core of the atomic bomb to the
Pacific for the strike on Hiroshima.
"Simply outstanding...Indianapolis is a must-read...a tour de force of
true human drama" (Booklist, starred review) that goes beyond the
men's rescue to chronicle the survivors' fifty-year fight for justice on
behalf of their skipper, Captain Charles McVay III, who is wrongly
court-martialed for the sinking. "Enthralling...A gripping study of the
greatest sea disaster in the history of the US Navy and its aftermath"
(Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Indianapolis stands as both
groundbreaking naval history and spellbinding narrative--and brings the
ship and her heroic crew back to full, vivid, unforgettable life.
"Vincent and Vladic have delivered an account that stands out through
its crisp writing and superb research...Indianapolis is sure to hold
its own for a long time" (USA TODAY).
